Megaman Double Network Epilogue: Santa's Helper
by Ghost501
Summary: Well, it comes the time in parents' life when a babysitter must be called to watch their child while they go and take care of whatever they need to do. But...is Protoman really the best babysitter over the little navi known as Stream? Especially when the navi thinks that he's...


Ghost: Psst...anyone know what day today is?

* * *

"And make sure you keep a very close eye on him. He's pretty fast for a toddler," the pink navi said for about the third time as the cyan navi squirmed in her arms. Needless to say after he had run from his father to go to the Virus Feeder, Roll had been watching the navi like a hawk. With no battle function and only being able to say a few small sentences, Stream would be in quite the predicament if he somehow ran off into the Net.

Protoman rolled his eyes. She made this sound as if he had never dealt with people trying to run from him. Of course, they were criminal navis and not toddlers, but still it was all the same concept, "He'll be fine, Roll. The party is only a couple of hours and then you and Megaman can come right back and get him." Protoman stated as the small navi suddenly turned to him and started smiling wildly.

Roll looked at her son as he began to laugh. Protoman chuckled, "See he likes me already!"

"Okay," Roll said, a twinge of both nervousness and sadness in her voice. See, this was her first time leaving Stream in anyone else's care but her own or Hub's. While she knew Protoman was capable navi, she had no idea how he was as a babysitter (navisitter?). Plus, he was an official. What if he had to leave or something? Surely he wouldn't drag Stream with him...right?

The toodler looked up at his mom, slightly confused as to why she hadn't told him she was friends with this navi. Didn't she know how important he was?

Roll smiled back at him, "Okay Stream, be a good boy for Protoman, okay? I love you," she said kissing his helmet since he always wore it. She carefully set the boy on the ground as he waddled over to Protoman. She looked back up at the red navi, "By the way, thank you so much for doing this for us."

"Hey it's not everyday that Lan, Megaman, and Dr. Hikari finish the Sync Program. Plus, aren't Lan and a Hub getting noted for some other project?" Protoman said. Chaud and him hadn't been needed with security at all and Stream was not only too young to attend but also to be left home alone. The cyan navi was also known for evading any navi that tried to watch him, except for his mother. He had tried, but it was like she had a sixth sense that warned her when she was trying to get away.

The pink navi sighed. So much had changed over the years. She had changed over the years. But, she honestly wouldn't have had it any other way, "I guess you're right. But it's just that I don't want to leave him. Not that I don't trust you but..."

She didn't get a chance to continue before Protoman promptly turned the navi around and pushed her gently out of his link. Not only did she not want to be late, but all this lack of trust was somewhat damaging to his pride. Once she was gone, he locked it. Just like she had told him to do. How was that for listening? But now he had a new problem...

What was he going to do with Stream? He shook his head. How hard could it be to entertain the cyan navi. He was like what...three and a half in human age. He'd probably just play with some rock cubes after Protoman smashed them into tiny pieces. He would show her just how...

...Where was Stream?

* * *

Stream knew it had to be somewhere around here. He wondered just what kind of cool stuff had would find in here. Maybe he would get his first battle chip this Christmas! See, it was last week when Stream started to notice that the Net looked different. He had even seen mommy in her Glacia Merge a couple times when there were no viruses around. When daddy asked her about it, she said something like she wanted to be fe-es-tive.

Then, one day when they had been walking around, mommy had suddenly stopped in front of something she called a BBS Board. He didn't really understand why a whole bunch of people decided to post on this thing but he was happy they did. He had been a little sad to hear that there was no Santa in the cyber world. But one of the posts on there said that he had a navi who helped him make his list! When mom had dropped him off, he knew this "Protoman" had to be him! The red bodysuit and white hair, even though it was weirdly long. It spelled Santa!

The post had gone on to say that this helper navi also carried a bunch of battle chips. He had seen mommy looking through some of the stores asking for some. She even asked him if she thought his daddy would like them. So, he was going to do the good thing and get his parents some battle chips too! And maybe Protoman would give him a chip too for being such a good boy!

But he ran into a problem. He hadn't known where the red navi kept them. So he had gone...what was it again? Ex-plor-ring. Needless to say, he had gotten lost and soon found himself somewhere in Protoman's PET. Stream put a finger up to his mouth, like he had seen everyone around him do when they were thinking. Then he got something! Yeah, find a map!

Mommy had showed him one at one point in time after he left when Protoman had pushed mommy out the Net space. But it had been a while ago; he hoped he remembered how to do it. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what the map looked like. When he opened them, he felt a little tired. The navi's programming wasn't used to using so much power (despite it being a simple task) yet. When he looked at the screen he had pulled up, he noticed that it said activate?

Weird? He didn't think mommy did this. But eventually curiosity fell into the stream and the cyan navi touched it. Soon, a screen appeared. Chip se-lec-tion? What was...oh look battle chips! He had found them!

As he looked through the selection he began to wonder why there were only five shown. He though navis could have all the chips they wanted. Suddenly, the chips went away and a screen appeared saying that the NetOp was un-a-vail-lia-able and if he wanted to continue the program. Stream quickly pressed yes. He wanted those chips!

But of course, the chips never came back and the screen went dead as a voice said, "Round 1, begin!"

Stream turned around sadly before noticing the one, two, three, four! Four yellow dogs in front of him. Viruses! He recognized them from the feeder! They were Spikeys!

Stream looked around for a bug frag. Maybe they were hungry; although he had to wonder why they had just come out of the air. He didn't think he saw them a couple of seconds ago. Before he could try and look more closely, a fireballs blasted into the ground. The smoke and flame wrapped around him. He wasn't hurt too badly, but some of his armor was now covered in black. Stream looked up at the first dog that sounded very mean.

The small navi looked at the dog with wide scared eyes. All of a sudden, he wanted mommy and daddy. He didn't think these dogs were nice anymore. So what was a toddler to do? The only thing he knew how...

Cry.

* * *

Protoman had barely made it in time. That last Spikey3 had been about ready to fire at Stream again. It was weird enough that they had all seemed to miss their first shot. Maybe a warning shot since he was so small? Anyway, it was for the best in that aspect. He hadn't known how the navi had wandered all the way to the part where he trained, but he had been glad when Chuad asked him why was he training if he was watching Stream. Of course, the cyan navi just had to inherit his mother's speed.

Either way, the navi quickly sliced past one of the four viruses that was trying to attack Stream. Only three left and luckily Chuad had given him just the chip to do it, "Delta Ray Edge!"

He dashed for the remaining three viruses, deleting them quickly. In seconds, four battle chips remained on the ground. Oh yeah, he and Chuad had been trying to actually complete the Chip Library for once and so they merely summoned the viruses rather than just buy the chips. A little past time hobby.

The toddler soon stopped crying as the chips fell to the ground. Protoman looked set the navi disbelievingly. Hadn't he known that he was about to be deleted? The red navi shook his head as the cyan one merely grabbed the chips and smiled happily. Though the little navi was surprised when they disappeared, but he had a feeling he knew where they were.

Protoman grabbed the navi and brought him back to the main area of the PET. And that was only the first hour...

* * *

Luckily, the second hour passed without much harm and Megaman and Roll appeared to get their son.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Stream said happily; he knew quite the number of words. It was just so hard to same so many of them though.

Roll quickly gathered the cyan navi in her arms, "Stream!" She had missed the little navi so much! Internally, she berated herself knowing that one day she would have to quit being so protective over him and let him be his own navi. But for now, she would allow herself to enjoy it.

"Hoped he wasn't too much trouble," Megaman said as he and Protoman shook hands. They were still rivals and gestures never really went past hand shakes and the rare high five.

Protoman shook his head, "None at all." They didn't need to know about the virus simulator incident. Plus he knew what Roll was like when her son was in any kind of possible danger. He almost shivered at the thought. Luckily, he thought he had managed to get all the soot off of him with the Fan chip. He hadn't wanted to risk using a chip that would actually damage the tyke more than the fireballs did and it wasn't like Stream could use battle chips this early anyway, so no recovery chips for him.

Megaman nodded, "Well, good night then. And I'll see ya around. Lan and I still owe you and Chuad a match!"

"Bye, Protoman," Roll said, though sincere, she sounded like she was thinking about something. Or more or less trying to see something. Protoman almost froze for a second, but relaxed when the pink navi shook her head. If she discovered anything, at least it wouldn't be while he was still in arrow's length of her.

As the family turned to leave, Stream waved from his place in Roll's arms, "Bye Santa!"

Protoman chuckled, "See you around, kid." So Stream was a handful, but at least he was his parents' child. And that in of itself was all he really cared about in the end.

* * *

Once the cyan navi was asleep, Roll tiptoed away from the place on the floor in the nursery section of the computer space. In the end, the Hikari home network was sectioned into parts. However, until he was older, the house network was disconnected from the Net by a lock that only the adult Hikaris (including navis) knew the password to.

"He's asleep?" Megaman asked walking back from one of the other sections.

Roll nodded, "Out like a light. Protoman must have kept him busy."

"I guess," he paused for a moment, "Hey, did you see anything weird in your Chip Pack?"

"No..." Roll said. She opened up Mayl's Chip Pack and did indeed notice the addition of two new HeatSide chips. But she hadn't gotten any of those chips nor seen any Spikeys all week, "You didn't have to give me my gift early you know?" She pouted, a little sad that the surprise was ruined.

"That's just it; I didn't. I've got two new HeatSide chips and I have no idea where they came from. Just had a feeling you might have gotten some too."

"But that doesn't make any sense. How did we?" Call it the sixth sense, but Roll knew she though something had been off about Stream when they got him. Used to being surrounded by it, she knew what fire smelled like. Plus, there had been a faint black around some areas of his armor that seemed to rub right off.

Roll took a breath. It was over now, she would have to be mad at Protoman another time. It wasn't so much after the fact stuff that made her go crazy, just the here and now. But she was going to make sure that Protoman would remember that fire and baby navis don't mix, "Hey Hub?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think we should let other people babysit Stream for a while. He seems to get into trouble no matter who is watching him."

Megaman chuckled, putting some of the pieces together, "Well, he did get us Christmas gifts."

Roll smiled back, "You're right. And I don't care that I got it early."

"Oh, so he can give you presents early and I can't?"

"Nope!" Roll smirked before walking ahead of the blue navi who was merely shaking his head. Now they just needed to decide what to get the little navi for Christmas.

* * *

Ghost: This idea came from a conversation with AnimeGirl257. Pretty much the whole prompt to this story was the fact that there must be a joke about Protoman being Santa Claus. Soon enough, Stream found his way into the picture and has once again landed the unfortunate red navi into trouble. So there you have it! Ghost501 logging out!

DN Fact: I first came up with a BN continuation idea sometime around now. Back then, the story known as DN1 was known as Megaman Battle Network 7. It evolved greatly since that time including Roll and Mayl being added to the actual hero class rather than just the main love interest and main character.


End file.
